Avoiding potential disaster.

[Scykoh]

So, a couple years ago, my friend bought a new power supply and graphics card for his PC, he plugged it all in, and the power supply was defective and fried his whole machine (atleast that's what he told me, maybe he's covering up being a nub and connecting it wrong?) pretty much he was left with no PC. I want to avoid that, is there a way I can test my power supply to make sure it's not defective, without hooking everything up and chancing it?

 

[closed_deal]

Ok this is experience i've just gained today with absolutely no duff gen. I came back home last night and got told today the my aunt's comp is knackered. I got the old fluke out to test the fuse all fine. So just to make sure i plugged the screens kettle lead into the PC. Kerf***ing boom with a massive 3-4 inch spark flying out the back of the PSU via the fan vent. However i had my trusty old Hiper 580 and plugged that in and boff the comp was fine. The PSU that blew was made in 1999 and didn't damage the PC maybe it was dumb luck

The moral of this event today is that a now believe to blow a whole computer via PSU problem is tosh. So just strap her in and turn her on thats the best any bloke can do without paying for extra.

 

[bliq]

Uh, thats not quite true- It's pretty easy to blow an entire computer when a PSU goes bad. It can fry CPUs, memory, video cards, etc. It's dumb luck when yoiu get away scott free- it's a matter of how quickly something in the chain melted and preventing the power surge from heating up the next item in the chain.

In your case, some trace on the PCB of the sucky PSU may have melted before the surge made it to the motherboard.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

Wow... closed_deal thats a... thick accent.

Anyway, buy a power supply tester, a good one costs around twenty dollars and is much better than spending hundreds of dollars on a new computer or any piece of hardware in it.

Good example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899705003

 

[Scykoh]

Edit: Thanks Blood Raven!

 

[closed_deal]

Again from experience I've lost an entire comp (2nd hand FX57, 2GB 4-4-4-8 Ram and two X1900XTX's) bar gfx, after coming back from det when the sparkies came round and hooked us up to temporary power units.

The only things that survived was the PSU and gfx. Again maybe dumb luck, but that twice PSU's have worked or saved a PC. Your friend's most likely cause of failure was fiddling with the red voltage change tab (another story i was 13 an a bit ) on the back of the PSU.

As for a way to test it...http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=3091 then voltage test with a fluke all the connections. Maybe an easier way that i don't know of.

*Edit* Raven posted before i hit enter, but good tool anyhow. Now to find a British retailer...

 

[Onus]

I've lost other parts in a PC, including the mobo and GPU, when a power supply gave up the ghost.
To answer the OP's question, yes and no. Yes, because you can get PSU testers ($18-$20) that will test the voltage on all of the rails.
No, because that won't tell you if the PSU is capable of putting out anywhere near its rated amperage, and it won't tell you whether the PSU will just shut down gracefully, melt by itself, or fry something else should it croak. The best insurance against PSU problems is to buy a QUALITY unit that at least meets your minimum requirements. Failing that, a bigger one, while still maybe not up to its rating, will be able to handle your load.

This link will help you determine your load:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
This link, though getting a little dated, will take you to a generally accepted tiered listing of PSUs:
http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon

If you want to read some interesting reviews of PSUs, and see some differences between a good one and crap, check out the PSU reviews here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/

 

[Scykoh]

I actually already bought a power supply, here's the one I bought.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&T
I herd nothing but good, and got many recomendations on it, so I went ahead and bought it.

 

[closed_deal]

You've got a good, reliable brand it'll be fine. Honestly save yourself the £10 and plug it in without worrying about it blowing up your comp. You'll obviously have a surge protector with a £20,000 guarantee, if it does (0.01% chance of happening) go wrong blame the surge protector and get your money back and some .

 

[Onus]

Corsair is excellent quality. I don't think Jonny's smoked one yet.

 

[Scykoh]

You've got a good, reliable brand it'll be fine. Honestly save yourself the £10 and plug it in without worrying about it blowing up your comp. You'll obviously have a surge protector with a £20,000 guarantee, if it does (0.01% chance of happening) go wrong blame the surge protector and get your money back and some .

What's this about a surge protector? Is it part of the power supply offer? /confused

 

[closed_deal]

Soz, but most people i know with i pc tend to make sure it's kettle lead for the PSU and LCD are plugged into a surge protector with a minimum £10,000 cashback guarantee. Dunno if you yanks have 'em, but they come in handy to save yer arse if summit goes wrong.

 

[Scykoh]

And, you're talking about a power-strip, right? I do have a surge-protector power strip. =)

 

[Onus]

I'm not familiar with the term "kettle lead," but I'm assuming from context that you mean the power cord.
And yes, most UPS units (and better surge protectors) have such guarantees.
Even so, when my UPS croaked on Wednesday, I got another one on Thursday to replace it. I may still try to fix the old one, but I like having good protection on my PC.

 

[closed_deal]

Ah you see in the UK we have 3 pin lead going to a 3 pin plug and they can be robbed from works place from kettles, if you can't be bothered to find a new fuse

 

[bgd73]

You can indeed blow a pc with bad psu...even from brand new.

Some things I went through involved recovering the unpluggables as if it had a perfect ESD I had to wait out..other parts just simply never came back. floppy, lan card, sound (to this day, the card looks normal- simply no function). i wondered if something that was a sacred voltage, the low ones like for cpu, clock generators, etc, went perfectly wrong....
Anyway, modern pc the better chances this don't happen, and having UPS, active pfc, not just a gimmick.
I have zapped into overlaod protection with zero errors since then (my tragedy was 1999).
Doubt all equipment, all you can. eyes ears and even scent can help...if you have no pro mean to test. A heavy psu is usually a good one...do not count the fan as part of the weight.